Platform: PC
ESRB: E
Genre: Puzzle/Adventure Combo
Number of Players: 1
Publisher: Big Fish Games
Release Date: 10/2009
Official Website

A family with the gift of drawing items that then come to life is under attack from a king and his dark chancellor. The parents ask Franklin, the house servant, to take and protect their youngest daughter, Iris. She too has inherited her family’s gift of animation and entertains herself with the sketches to pass the time while separated from her family. That is, until the dark chancellor puts a curse on her tower and traps her. You must rescue Iris using her art as clues to find her before the king and chancellor come for her.

Graphics: The graphics in this game are luxurious and rich. It’s almost like walking into an interactive graphic novel done with a touch of Tim Burton meets the Brothers Grimm style. The game takes on a three dimensional feel as you navigate the tower rooms and as you step into Iris’ paintings. The artwork alone makes this worth looking at. Check out the trailer for a peek.

Sounds: The music is a bit repetitive in some spots, albeit appropriately eerie and spooky. And it does change when inside the artwork. Eventually, I found I tuned it out after a while.

Controls: This is a straight forward point and click game. The controls are easy to use.

Flow: This game had great flow. The developers didn’t mess around. Following an entrancing mini-movie introduction, they put your right into the game or literally on the front doorstep of the tower. The story continues to unfold as you explore each room and discover various hidden objects and puzzles that eventually lead you to Iris.
Initially, there seemed to be a lot of backtracking looking for items, but as you delve further into the game there is less of that. The puzzles get more difficult as the game goes on and there is a variety of puzzle types, cryptograms, sliders, etc. I was never bored with the game or puzzles.
There are a few nice features Big Fish has included in order to avoid player frustration/disruption of flow. If at any point you are lost or stuck on a puzzle you can always click on Franklin. He was Iris’ mentor who has been turned to stone by the curse. He can offer you 3 hints per task if you’re at a loss for what to do next. I found his hints to be a bit vague at times, but sometimes they were helpful.
There is also a “skip the puzzle” button that lets you skip the puzzle if you’re getting too frustrated, BUT it only appears after you put a little effort into trying to solve it, not that I ever used it of course! ;P
And last but not least, there is a walk-through blog posted that does just that—it walks you thru the puzzles’ solutions and where to go next.

Fun Factor: The mysterious dark story interweaves beautifully with the puzzles to make this pure entertainment. Combine that with colorful characters that you interact with along the way makes this a delight to play. The length was perfect for me, but I could see many puzzle/adventure souls wanting the game to go longer.

Female Aspect: Your role is simply identified as the rescuer. You are never identified as male or female and in fact don’t have a body that is seen. I wasn’t bothered by not having a specific identity for this game. The only real female representation in this piece is Iris. Through the game she is established via her friends and drawings as an intelligent, gifted child. There is sort of a damsel in distress quality to her and I was somewhat disappointed with the ending.

***WARNING SPOILER ALERT**** The ending left me hanging. She has a confrontation with the evil king and dark chancellor, and then draws a door in her book and she and her book disappear. I found myself asking, “Where’d she go?” and if she has this power of magical animation, why doesn’t she draw something to imprison the dark chancellor?? One can always hope for a sequel where she uses her magical sketches to fight back and rescue poor Franklin and her parents.

Replay Value: I see myself playing this again but would need to allow some time to forget how to do the puzzles. If given enough time, I can see this being like a good movie you can pop in on a rainy day or just before Halloween to getcha’ in the mood.

Final Thoughts: Big Fish Games has put out a beautiful piece of animation combined with hidden object puzzles for a heckuva deal at $6.99. I think this short adventure-puzzle game is worth playing and I am keeping my fingers crossed for a sequel. I hope it comes soon, just so I can see more of the incredible artwork and watch Iris get her revenge.

Review copy was provided by Big Fish Games and did not affect the outcome of this review.